Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose

In other words, sometimes plants surprise you and die, and other times they surprise you by living.

I've got examples of both on my indoor growing table right now. Although I want to start by talking for a minute about one of the failures, the photo was too ugly to use to start this post -- so you get a little sneak peek at the success.

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But really I want to say that this little patchouli plant I was hoping to overwinter seemed to die almost overnight:

Although looking back I think it was showing signs of something being really wrong a while back. This is what it looked like about 10 days ago:

It's a bit yellow, and it had lots of spider mites on it. I started misting it a couple of times a day to try and get rid of the mites (they don't like the humidity), and gave the plant a shot of fertilizer.

Two days later it was pretty much dead. I wonder if the fertilizer was too strong, or if the plant was already on its way out. I'll have to look for this again in the spring.

Now, on to some good news:

This Cissus quadrangularis spent at least six months under this same growing table this summer, with very little light and not a drop of water.

It's still alive!

The topmost segments are all dried out:

And one of the stems did not survive:

But the plant lives! Those are the kinds of plants I really love -- they take some abuse and barely notice it.

What I don't like though is when plants that are typically abuse-takers turn finicky for no known reason. Take Colocasia for instance -- I grow many varieties, and they're all so easy. Give them lots of water and plenty of light and keep feeding them, and they'll just keep growing. Not this one though:

Colocasia 'Noble Gigante'. I paid a little more than I really wanted to for this one because it had big size potential. It was a 12" (30cm) plant when I got it, and this is what is left. For reference, this is a 3" (75mm) pot.

Another Colocasia I bought from the same nursery didn't survive either -- another did though. I'm not sure that I'll buy Colocasia from them anymore.

I'm hoping to keep this plant going through the winter, but it's still unclear if this one is going to be a "win" or a "loss".

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